Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

[frink84]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

I've got the same combo of company's LED taillights and not chromed headlights on my 96 Suburban, they all work pretty dang well. Nice work!

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

Project Update for August 19th, 2017: Not much to report on the white truck (#Trucknado) this time, just a few upgrades and fixes. We have been too busy to tackle any of the big performance stuff or even much of the #TruckNorris parts transfer. So far I still really like this little truck, and its much cleaner than TruckNorris ever was. Radio and Bluetooth upgrade make life so much easier inside. We have had some really mild weather for August in Texas and I've washed the truck a couple of times in the morning, before the crew gets to the shop.



I'm still a bit frustrated with the somewhat lackluster performance of the 4.8L vs the hotted-up 5.3L in the old truck, but we will address that SOON. This time I am going to cover some new exterior lighting upgrades, an ant extermination job, and some battery fixes.

ANTS SUCK + CLEAN YOUR BATTERY TERMINALS

Since my last update we moved "out in the country" to a small piece of property (the #FairFarm... soon to be called AntFarm!) and I sometimes have to park this truck in the grass out there. I've tried to avoid it but we are very "driveway limited" compared to our old house, where we had 10K sf of concrete driveway and parking area. Well we have been noticing little black ants in the grass out there and after one solid rain a week ago they migrated into Trucknado.



After having the battery not work (see below) earlier that day, I saw ants all over the inside of the truck bed when I got to work. See I was transporting a bunch of cardboard boxes left over from our recent move, to put them in the giant recycling dumpster at Vorshlag. Those boxes got wet sitting outside for a day, and I guess the ants had made a new home inside. After unloading the ant covered boxes I still saw them - under the truck bed mat, on the exterior of the truck, and even a few inside. I pulled out the bed mat and floor mats and washed all of the ants out that I could see. Then Aaron got to work on the battery issues but found thousands more in the weatherstrip seals, underhood, on the frame, everywhere! WTF! This literally happened during one full day of being parked in the grass at the farm, FFS....



Aaron blasted the truck outside, underneath, and underhood with the pressure washer and ants were swimming down into the creek behind the shop in droves... but they just kept re-appearing. This ant spawn/power wash cycle went on for for almost 2 hours while he fixed the battery cables. That night they were still coming out, I tried some "ant dust" applied around the tires like demon powder! As the #Jankystick points out above, that crap did NOT work.



Jon then brought me some proper ant killer - Bifen Insecticide/Termiticide. One ounce per gallon of water in my garden sprayer (aka: tire sprayer) and I sprayed the truck in the same spots as we power washed, including on the paint. Haven't seen an ant in a week since. I then used the remainder of that first gallon mix to spray all around the house. No more ants there, either. Good stuff, just ordered more from Amazon - it kills ALL bugs, doesn't mess with pets, and its easy to apply "like a pro" with a tire sprayer. I don't recommend this for race tires, however...



So earlier on the morning of "Ant Day" the truck wouldn't start. It wanted to try to crank, but acted like it had a bad connection at the battery. The battery was 4 years old (they last about 4-6 years in Texas heat) but it looked good, no oozing crud from the GM style side terminals. Of course it was pouring rain when I came out of the gym, and the truck was now parked in 4" of water. So I broke out my Leatherman multi-tool and managed to get the terminals off. Yuck, both cable ends were FULL of crud. I scraped the funk back and got it to start, then limped the truck to work.



After we attacked the ants Aaron got some new side terminal posts ordered and replaced the crusty OEM ones. The copper ends of the main positive and negative battery cables were then cleaned and inspected. The corrosion did not travel up inside the insulation so they were re-used - sometimes the rot goes up inside the cable jacket and they have to be replaced.



Everyone that knows me understands I'm a bit of a clean freak. I hate dirty cars, engines, wheels, shop areas, etc. Apparently the new technician/fabricator Aaron picked up on this and without me prompting him he removed the battery and battery tray, cleaned the surface rust off the tray, and painted it black. Then replaced all of the crusty hardware with shiny new bits from our metric bolt assortment. I noticed when I came out and saw the finished product - good stuff. All told he spent 1.4 hours power washing the ants all over the truck, cleaning the terminals, painting the tray and buttoning up all of the battery repairs. No problems since.

PRO TIP: Shortly after you buy any used car, go to the trouble of removing the battery terminals and inspect the cable ends. Then inspect the battery's age, too. Clean the connections - this is the NUMBER ONE reason why any car won't start. Don't do this on the side of the road at night, or in a parking lot in the rain like I did. Plan ahead, be proactive, and spend the $2 on fresh terminals if its a GM side post battery. Do this every 2 years and your battery won't let you down.

NEW HEADLIGHTS, LED TAIL LIGHTS, & 3RD BRAKE LIGHT

I pointed out the LED tail lights I planned to purchase last time. I wanted to get something brighter than the very faded OEM tail lights (below left) that had old school incandescent bulbs in this 2000 Silverado (18 year old plastics parked in Texas sun tend to fade).



I went with LED tail lights mostly for the safety aspect - they are MUCH brighter under braking, and that is a real thing for me. Virtually every car made in the past 5-10+ years comes with LED base tail lights, as they last much longer, use less power, and provide much more light than filament bulbs. After looking at dozens of options and styles I went with a sedate LED array, no Altizzima silliness. Technology improves and better options than OEM housings exist for very little money. Yes I could have just bought LED replacement bulbs and used them in new Silverado housings, but I wanted to try this simple LED array housing from "Spyder Auto" (aka: China).



I ordered the tamest version they make - no smoked lenses, no clear LEDs, just a LED housing with stock looking red lenses. Before ordering I read a bunch of reviews on the Amazon. Most of the reviews for this brand were very positive (4 stars is good compared to other brands/options) except for one thing: these would sometimes arrive with a broken lens. And sure enough, the first set that I ordered arrived with one broken (see above). I went through the return process with the Amazon and shipped them back. My account was credited within about 2 weeks, so I checked a bunch more brands and reviews, then... re-ordered the same damn things.



This second set arrived in perfect shape, in the same type of packaging. Who knows. They looked very shiny and sparkly and Aaron had these installed in a handful of minutes - they are literally plug-and-play replacements.



The LED 3rd brake light/cargo light setup above (from "SPPC", aka: China) is another aftermarket replacement that upgrades the OEM unit. About $57 shipped, and Aaron had that installed in about 3 minutes. Yet another plug-and-play solution that really worked. Very bright 3rd brake light, and a much more usable "cargo light" with the clear portions on the sides. Have used this many times already to unload things at night, its handy.



The stock style front headlights were in great shape - somebody had even replaced them at one point. There are tons of OEM housings available on the Amazon for around $100, including the lower Daylight Running/Turn Signal Lights. They are easy to change - you pull to quick release pins (see above right) and out the come!

But the stock 1999-2002 Chevrolet headlights bored me - I always liked the 1999-07 GMC sierra front headlight shape and grill better. But changing over to GMC or even the later 2003-07 Chevy bits would involve new fenders and hood, and this truck's finish is too perfect to warrant that. So I went with aftermarket headlights that differ slightly from the OEM bits...



I took a bit of a gamble on these headlight assemblies form DNA Motoring (aka: China), but at $83 it wasn't a huge risk. There are dozens and dozens of headlight style options for these trucks, a dizzying array of poor taste and bad design. These are just subtly different enough that some might not notice the change. Its the same shape housings but with black plastics inside. Not CHROME! or SMOKED! or ALTEZZA! styled, just a little different. I like them, gives the truck just a slight alternation from the boring OEM lights.



Another easy install, with the OEM bulbs and sockets just swapping over. Some options come with new sockets/bulbs but these didn't. I'd suggest changing the turn signal bulbs to amber, which we will do next week. The lighting is good at night but we need to adjust them ever so slightly.



The LED tail light housings work very well, too. The images above are in full daylight with the parking lights on, not the brake lights. At night the brake lights are BRIGHT, which is what I wanted. Again, they have the same shape and coloring as the stock units, just in a more modern LED array. Happy with all 3 purchases so far.

WHAT'S NEXT?

I wanted to get these new headlight housings installed and sorted out before dropping more money on LED replacement bulbs for the main lights, running lights, turn signals, and rear reverse lights - all of which are using the OEM style bulbs for now. There are SO many options on LED bulb replacements it makes my head spin! Many of these have fans to keep them cool, which apparently can be noisy. I will try some out and give a review here soon.



This 4.8L needs to go. I've got a hot little 5.7L LS engine with the same 24 style tooth reluctor left over from a previous project. Wait, an iron 5.7L LS was never built by GM!? That is true, but its a long story. This thing should make close to 380 whp and its just sitting here - probably double the power of this old 4.8L V8 lump. For the cost of a balancer and some gaskets we can swap in this 5.7L + the 1-7/8" long tubes + tuned PCM from #TruckNorris and it should scoot along pretty well.



The OEM wheels and nearly stock ride height are also pretty annoying, but I have so many other "higher priorities" right now. I have to pay to build a new shop for Vorshlag, the house we moved into needs work, I've got major mods planned for my BMW E46 330, then I went and bought this C6 Z06 Corvette since my last post - and it needs everything. So for now the OEM 17" truck wheels/tires/stance are gonna stay. Power... we must improve the power next!

Until next time,

[Zora]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

Been following this post lately, can't wait to see your progress on the truck! I also own a 2000 silverado with a 4.8 (stock) and i'm wondering about modding it. I've seen a couple of videos pushing the little v8 to around 900hp. For a 17-18 year old engine I think some seafoam should help it gain a little horsepower back.

[WarShrike]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

We have a high ram on the shop truck, "The Krakken" and it's been nice. Can't say the same about the sammich intercooler that goes between the lid and the LIM.

It was advertised to be efficient on up to 2000hp, but it's not even doing that at a lower level and we have a huge water supply, reservoir and bilge pump to supply it all.

I need to do a few things with some rivnuts, I forgot about that tech awhile back.

[CrowsFeast]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

A little late now that you've bought the built in LED tail lights but you could have done Silverado housings and replace the bulbs with LED's. I did this with my previous car (current one has oem led's) and it worked out very well. I followed it once (mom driving) and it bordered on being too bright!

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

continued from above



I have always used RAM mounts for lap timer/data loggers and windshield suction cup camera mounts. They are rugged, easy to adjust, use a standardized 1" ball for mounting at either ends, and standardized bolt hole spacing for the "device holders" and suction cup ends. When something is important in a race car I use a RAM mount, why not for a costly phone in my daily driven truck? This time I didn't need the windshield suction cup mount, but instead a bolt-on mount to secure it all to the dash.



After the latest round of Chinese crap was shown to be as bad expected, I purchased a number of USA made modular RAM mounting parts. I got a RAM (RAM-HOL-PD3U) Universal Spring Loaded "Large" Cell Phone Cradle Holder ($14.24), RAM "Diamond Base" with 1" Ball ($7.95) to mount to the phone holder, and a Ram Composite Double Socket Arm for 1-Inch Ball Bases ($8.80). To this was added a (RAM-B-202U) Round Marine Electronic 1-Inch Ball Mount Base ($6.99). Could have used a second "Diamond" shaped base but I wanted something larger and heavier duty on the chassis side.



If you have read my other build threads you know we use lots of threaded "nutserts" or "rivnuts". These threaded inserts are used to add a threaded hole to a blind panel - like the mounting points for the flares on my E46 race car, above. Nutserts are installed with a special rivet gun (see above). Rivnuts can be installed into sheet metal, of course, but there are different nutserts made for use with plastic or fiberglass panels. Four of these threaded inserts were added to the dash. This gives us a place to screw the stainless M5 button head bolts for the round RAM base.



Aaron bolted the round "marine" RAM mount base into the dash nutserts, near the airbag disable switch - which is never used (it is always "On" - I never carry child seats). This small area of plastic is bolted to the inner dash structure and can easily be replaced in minutes, with either new plastic pieces or a plastic "cubby" from the extended cab GMT800 trucks ($17, which was purchased but not used). The RAM double socket arm attaches to the RAM base at the dash, then the diamond head attaches at the other end. This is then bolted to the "large" RAM phone case holder.

This RAM phone holder wasn't quite big enough for the large frame of my iPhone 6+ with a case. I asked Aaron to cut off the two "fixed" plastic claw mounts and add a bent aluminum clamp in its place. This was built then riveted to the end of the RAM holder, extending the clamp reach by half an inch. This worked perfectly to fit my big 6+ sized phone with case.



I've been using this RAM holder setup for about a week and absolutely love it. I can install my phone into the spring loaded holder with one hand, blindfolded, so its no longer bouncing around on the center console. Installing it just takes a bit of downward pressure and it pops into the upper and lower jaws of the holder. The 4 adjustable side pins keep the phone aligned left to right. It won't move a fraction of an inch within the holder, and the RAM arm and base keep the holder from moving relative to the truck. Secure as hell - I suspect it would survive any crash without moving. People use this phone holder on motorcycles, so it is well trusted. And I've trusted RAM products for many years, too.



With the Alpine unit from Truck Norris installed now we have Bluetooth communication from radio to phone, and I've been using this for Pandora music streaming, navigation with Waze, and hands free calling. Compared to using your phone on speaker this is 100 times better - louder, clearer, and hassle free. The RAM mount allows me to rotate the phone or swivel the mount around in a pretty big arc. I've got it just out of the way of the HVAC vents and just below the top of the dash. If my phone is low on juice I can plug in the Lightning cable through the two lower claws, to charge on the go.

The only regret I have is not adding this RAM mount setup to either truck sooner! In this case "doing it right" was a whopping $38 in parts, and worth every penny. All of my cars with janky Chinese phone holders are getting something similar, soon.

TAILGATE LATCH + CENTER CONSOLE LID REPAIRS

These are two things that just broke on the new truck, which I detailed earlier on the original Truck Norris. The console lid has some foam on the back side to keep it tight against the latch, but the foam had disintegrated. This made the lid squeak.... constantly.



This is a known issue on single cab GMT800s, along with the rear hinge mount snapping off (like it did on Truck Norris). I asked Aaron to swap the lid from Truck Norris to the new white truck, but they have different grey interior colors... the white trucks' is a much lighter shade of gray vs the dark charcoal grey of the old truck. So instead he swapped the replacement aftermarket lid's lower section over, which had new foam, and it worked like a champ. No more foam dust going everywhere - and no more squeaking!



The image above at left shows the upper console lids separated from the lower. They can be "unsnapped" but take a lot of pressure to snap back together. I suspect this console lid in the white truck had been replaced at some point - its just too clean and perfect for a truck with 208K miles. But it matches the rest of the interior and exterior, which are perfect.



The same goes for the tailgate latch - which broke and stuck on the white truck in June. Aaron removed it from the back side and manually opened the tailgate. He then extracted the latch from the old truck - which had been replaced with a better aftermarket version and new latch clips. The red and green clips are what break, but the latch itself was pretty crusty on the white 2000, so we replaced everything with the newer/aftermarket parts from Truck Norris - latch assembly, clips, and latch surround.



This is yet another part from Truck Norris transferred over after a problem on the new truck. Very handy having the old truck around...

OTHER THINGS TO REPAIR

When we were doing the center console lid swap I cleaned out the contents of this storage area and found a big stack of repair receipts from the previous owner. I went through these when I was putting them in a proper file folder and found out a number of things. One, the ARE fiberglass bed cover cost $1429 to order and install, wow.



Also, the previous owner did really good maintenance on this truck using outside shops: regular oil changes, a transmission flush, diff fluid, new ball joints, annual tune ups, new AC compressor, alternator, the other rear caliper was replaced 2 years ago, tires every few years, and on and on. The only thing he didn't fix properly was the latch for the ARE bedcover, which looked like it was glued in place. It fell off within about a week of ownership, gone. I'll have our guys build a proper latch from aluminum soon. Otherwise we will just wait until I buy the flat, retractable aluminum cover.



The original taillight lenses on the 2000 were foggy and cooked from the sun (see above left) - 18 years will do that. When you step on the brakes they are faint and hard to see in full daylight. Not good - I want whoever is behind me to SEE when I am stopping, after what happened to me in the old truck. I had hoped to re-use the relatively new 2003-07 Silverado taillights (above right) that we had installed in Truck Norris, but both sides were cracked in the rear end collision. I did some research...



For this new truck I wanted something even brighter than new OEM rear lights. I wanted LED brightness so I just ordered these aftermarket LED taillight housings (see above). These aftermarket units are ALL made in China now, and can often be cheesy looking and flaky, but I did a lot of research and got some of the costlier units. A buddy has the same ones in his GMT800, so I figured I'd give these a try. Look for that and some new front headlight housings in my next update.

WHAT'S NEXT?



The "LR4" Vortec 4800 4.8L GEN III iron block V8 under the hood of this 2000 Silverado is somewhat uninspiring. The LR4 engines in 1999 produced 255 hp while the 2000-04 models made 270 hp/285 lb·ft, and the 2005-2006 models made 285 hp/295 lb·ft. The last 208,000 miles of use hasn't made it any more powerful. The 1999 "LM7" 5.3L engine produced 270 hp/315 lb·ft - which is what we had in Truck Norris (plus we had a cold air, long tube headers, dual 3" exhaust, and a custom dyno tune). The 2000-2003 LM7 made 285 hp/325 lb·ft and the 2004-2007 made 295 hp/335 lb·ft. This also has a cast iron block and aluminum heads.



So theoretically this 2000 Chevy's 4.8L should make as much horsepower as the stock 5.3L in the 1999 GMC we had. It sure doesn't feel like it - this thing is a slug. Sure, it has a K&N cold air, but otherwise its stock. I suspect we will move the long tube ARH headers and custom dual 3" exhaust over to this new truck fairly soon, along with the new fuel pump from the old truck as well.



Now that our engine shop HorsePower Research is really going strong it might be time to think about a more powerful engine to build for Truck Norris 2. Something with an aluminum GEN III block, bigger displacement, and better heads/cam/intake. We're about to test a Holley Hi-Ram intake on a customer's 7.7L powered car and if it works as well as we hope, I might add one of those to the shopping list. These are easy to fit under the hood of a truck and they really uncork the over 7.0L LS engines. Big time.



Wheels and tires are still stock and boring, but the tall sidewall 17" tires do ride better than the 20" wheel/tire combo I had on Truck Norris. Still deciding what to do with the brakes, which might dictate a move to at least an 18" diameter wheels. The 6 piston Powerbrake kit (above) made for the GMT800 is just begging to be purchased.

More soon,

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

Project Update for July 2nd, 2017: I've owned this white 2000 Silverado 1/2 ton truck for three months. Shop was very busy during that time so I was just dealing with some issues on the new truck. Those "issues" have been handled in our first round of upgrades and repairs, including: a Bluetooth radio upgrade, custom phone cradle, center console lid repair, tailgate latch replacement, and janky alarm system removal.



It sure has been handy having the old truck around to source parts that are broken on the new truck. We've already swapped a bunch of little parts over, which we will detail in this update. More and more of Truck Norris is going into the white truck... so I'm just calling the white Silverado Truck Norris 2.

JANKY AFTERMARKET ALARM REMOVAL

Aftermarket car alarms are the scourge of the automotive world. I absolutely hate them because they rarely work and are always more nuisance than "security upgrade". I call them "noise makers", noises that nobody pays any attention to. Every car I've ever purchased with an "alarm system" installed has been a hot mess, and I always end up removing them. The CARBINE branded car alarm that was added to this white truck was no different - it just made noise, always false tripped, and stopped even unlocking the doors. It all started falling apart 24 hours after I purchased the truck.



At one point this mess of wires and modules must have set the previous owner back a pretty penny. It had all sorts of features - a long range 2-way radio signal to alert you (on a special key fob) when the truck was being broken into and how, integration with the keyless entry and factory horn, and more. If you so much as touched the truck it would go off - and the wind set it off more times than not. The key fob didn't work worth a damn and the alarm siren and truck horn would blare every time I tried to unlock the truck. I swear it worked when I test drove it and all the way home, but the day after I got back the key fob no longer cycled the remote locks - just set off the alarm. I'm cursed when it comes to alarms!



As a work around (FOR THREE MONTHS!) I would manually unlock the driver's door with the key, then cycle the "unlock" button on the alarm fob, then open the door. I'd manually lock it when exiting. If you did this out of order - ALARM! ALARM! ALARM! The little siren didn't last 2 days before I ripped it out and threw hard into a concrete wall.



One day in late June we had a small window of time where we could touch this truck, so I asked Brad to swap the radio (see below) from Truck Norris over this white truck, and remove the aftermarket alarm in the process. He found a wiring harness diagram online and got to work. After removing the face plate of the dash, then the column covers and knee crushing plate, the wiring, relays, and alarm modules were uncovered.



Brad surgically removed the entire system, which strangely enough wasn't even connected to the ignition system - and sure enough, I could start and drive this truck with the alarm blaring (ask me how I know). With the many wires, modules, windshield mounted transmitter removed it was finally alarm free. But I still needed a remote keyless entry fob - so I stole one from Truck Norris. Reprogramming it (and any replacement you but) was rather easy. After a quick check of Google and 60 seconds of programming, I had a remote keyless entry and factory security system working again. If the flashing "SECURITY" light issues start up I know how to fix that, which we discussed earlier in this thread for Truck Norris. Its all functioning like the factory intended now.



I was very happy to NOT have go through a 4 step process to unlock and disarm the alarm anymore. Just hit "unlock" on the fob and hop in the truck. While the alarm was being removed the radio was swapped...

BLUETOOTH RADIO UPGRADE

Other than the alarm, the $300 Alpine IDA-X100 radio the previous owner had installed (2008 installation) bugged me something fierce. It sounded great, and come to find out after looking at his receipts, the speakers were upgraded as well (Kicker 6" and 4x6" speakers installed in 2007). But this Alpine had one of the worst layouts I've ever seen for radio controls - it was literally as bad as BMW iDrive, with a big dial you had to press and rotate and other buttons you had to press to change to different FM station presets.



It was super distracting to have to mash and rotate and press 3 buttons just to change a station. NOPE! Add to that it had no Bluetooth support - you had to buy an upgrade module" for about $100 to get that feature back then. That's janky - time to swap in the Alpine radio we had in... you guessed it! TruckNorris



I was still pretty happy with the Alpine CDE-135BT head unit we installed into the old Truck Norris back in August 2013 (see above left - shown inside the black dash from Truck Norris). It was easy to use, sounded good, had integrated Bluetooth support, an external microphone to use with calls (see above right) and worked with well my phone. The one thing about this setup I never loved was the phone holder, which sat up on the dash with a suction cup. It held onto the dash during the crash but the head popped off and my phone was wedged up under the windshield. Almost damaging my $1000 phone was almost as costly as the rest of this crash, so I wanted something more secure and out of my line of sight - see the new RAM phone holder solution in the next section.



Brad went to the old Truck Norris and removed the OEM black face plate from the dash. I was hoping to replace the grey unit on the new truck, which had a hole drilled in it for an LED from the stupid alarm system, but it looks too dark with the light grey dash. He then extracted the 2013 Alpine unit for use in the new truck.



Brad got to work on the new truck and removed the 2008 era Alpine and replaced it with the newer Alpine unit from Truck Norris. The old unit was hit with #TheJankyStick on the way out.



A mixture of both dash installation kits was used, but the harnesses were fairly interchangeable, since they were both Alpine units for 1999-07 GMT800 trucks. The new unit fired up and worked like a champ - even kept the Bluetooth pairing to my phone! Sounded great and changing radio stations was easy again. I can mash one button and give Siri commands via the microphone we swapped over, for hands free dialing, navigation, and the rest.

RAM PHONE HOLDER ADDED

This might seem trivial but having a sturdy, easy to use phone holder is very important to me. I invest a lot in my smart phones and I live and die by this thing - it reminds me when to wake up, has my "to do" list and calendar, email, Facebook, navigation, and streaming music stations I've worked on for years. My phone goes with me everywhere, and I drive this truck everywhere. So the truck and phone need a good mounting interface.

It has taken me a lifetime to learn this valuable lesson, and I keep learning it over and over again: You get what you pay for. You want to be cheap? You are gonna get cheap results. Spend a little more up front to get quality and you will be rewarded in the long run.



For this new truck I purchased a number of cheap Chinese phone holders as a test, shown above. I have 3 or 4 other ones I've purchased for other vehicles. After using these for a few days I realized that they are garbage. GARBAGE. The dash mounted unit I had in Truck Norris worked "OK" but it was somewhat flimsy, didn't hold the phone securely, and snapped in half during the crash. I have got to stop buying the cheap Chinese junk like this - they always let you down in the end.



I looked at a friend's "magnetic" phone holder setup, which he swore by. This works where you have some dash mounted magnetic pedestal with a magnet, and a thin piece of steel that you apply to the back of your phone with adhesive. Only $8.99! Act now, operators are standing by! You just point the phone at the magnet and it sticks. Sort of. A light flick of my pinkie finger sent his phone tumbling to the floor. Uhhh.... no. A good bump in the road will send my phone falling under my feet. Another cheap Chinese gimmick.

continued below

[frink84]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

The Great White Hype?

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

Project Update for April 10, 2017: Well as much as I liked the idea of getting a 2 door GMT420 Tahoe and Yukon, I went in another direction for the replacement for the wrecked TruckNorris. I bought something last week - You can read about the new Vorshlag shop truck below, but we don't have a lot of plans for it just yet.

Mostly it came down to the slim selection of 2 door Tahoes and Yukons. The ones we could find were either ratted out junk boxes that needed a complete restoration, or they had some very janky mods that would have to be undone. People that own these know how rare they are and are charging a mint for clean, unmolested, stock 2 doors - even with 200K+ miles on them they are going for $8-15K. Crazy.

The other challenge outside of finding a clean stock 2 door GMT420 to was that the old school Vortec V8 would need to be replaced, and pretty soon. This 1990s era Gen II Small Block Chevy engine is a far cry from any Gen III LS engine. I had researched the swap extensively, and it was going to gobble up about $1500-2000 in parts just to get the wiring harness, A/C + alternator, gauges, and other systems to match up with an LS engine. With the loss I took on the insurance claim for TruckNorris, that meant I would be stuck with feeble Vortec V8 for a while longer than I liked. This would be a downgrade in power from the 5.3L... bigly.



I managed to buy TruckNorris back from the insurance company after it was totaled, so many of the best parts from this truck will live on in our next project.

Why look at enclosed vehicles? Wouldn't you want something open for delivering stuff, or is it all small stuff?

Good point - and one we debated internally. We do have to carry bigger pallets that would be easier to transport in a truck bed, which is not as often as we carry just a bunch of "boxes of parts", but it does happen. Yet we also have to deal with rain and other weather sometimes getting the contents in the truck bed wet, which can ruin raw steel parts. So there's gotta be a compromise - you will see what we did to address that below.

2000 CHEVY SILVERADO 1500

The final solution was... another GMT800 Short Wheel Base (119") 1/2 ton pickup! A Facebook friend sent a link to this SUPER CLEAN 2000 Silverado for sale on an obscure TexasAggie forum, which not many people saw (thankfully). After teetering between the Tahoe and another GMT800 pickup I caved in and bought this super clean Silverado.



It was located in Katy, Texas, which made for an 11 hour round trip. Instead of waiting for a weekend, Amy and I went down towards Houston on a Tuesday (4/4/17) to get this one. Long day but it was luckily worth it. If I had driven that far to only see a ratty turd, it would have been "par for the course" for a CraigsList find - but this fellow Ag took great pictures and his ad was extremely accurate. I got lucky.



For a nearly 18 year old truck the all original paint is amazingly flawless. This was a truck that was cared for and kept in a garage. There's maybe one small ding in the body (that can be fixed with PDR) and a dent in the front chrome bumper (that will be replaced with a body color version someday), and maybe 3 or 4 small rock chips. That's it!



The only real mod: an ARE branded fiberglass bed cover, which has gas assist lift struts and is lockable. That gives us the all-weather, secure bed storage we need - but it does limit what you can store inside. I will get to that issue below.

FRUMPY OLD MAN BED COVER!

The one thing that is both useful yet ruins the look of this truck is the aftermarket, fiberglass bed cover. On the short wheelbase truck, this taller bed cover messes up the body lines completely. It looks like it has a "hunch back", really ugly...



Back in 2007-2010 I owned another GMT800 truck - this white crew cab 3/4 ton "1500HD" shown below. It also had a fiberglass bed cover (SNUGtop brand) that also came with the truck, but wasn't as tall. These hard tilt-up bed covers cost $800-1000+ painted and installed, so its not an inexpensive thing to add as an upgrade (and it makes it seem expensive when you remove it).



That 3/4 ton truck was super clean and looked more like how most of my long term car/truck purchases: CLEAN. I try to keep my daily driver vehicles spotless inside, out, and under hood. The old '99 GMC (TruckNorris) was one of the rattier vehicles I have ever purchased or kept for as long as I did... we made it much nicer over the 4 years, but the paint was always a mess. I always hated the color of that GMC, too.



Anyway, the bed cover on that 3/4 ton truck was handy at times, but a total PITA at others - which is why I never got one for the '99 GMC.



I removed the bed cover from the 1500HD and kept it off of this truck for about half the time I owned it. Why? Because you can't fit anything tall under the bed cover! Something more than about 20" tall would prevent it from closing. We used this truck primarily to haul an open trailer + race car to events all over the state. I found out pretty quickly that it was REALLY hard to fit our tools, a set of wheels/tires, and other "track stuff" under the hard bed cover.



A power retractable bed cover might work much better... it has the security of a lockable bed cover, but since it doesn't pivot up at the rear you can just roll it out of the way and stuff large, bulky items in the bed. Win, Win. They aren't cheap but maybe if I can sell this one piece bed cover it would help pay for the new retractable unit.

PLANNED MODS?

If you know me, you know I cannot leave anything "stock". I have already ordered a few small items to fix or upgrade some things and we will be swapping over many of the better parts from TruckNorris: the ARH 1-7/8" long tube headers, dual 3" stainless exhaust (might get different mufflers), maybe the rear brakes (front will get Powerbrake 6-pots), the radio + speakers, and a few other things. The 20x9" Forgestar wheels will be removed and likely sold.



The interior on this 2000 Silverado is a lighter shade of gray than the GMC but it is in FLAWLESS condition. The aftermarket Alpine radio button layout is a bit funky and I've already tired of it, plus it doesn't have Bluetooth. We'll swap the radio and speakers over from the GMC very soon. There's a rattle on the center console cover so that might get swapped over as well. An aftermarket alarm is installed but its janky and about to be surgically removed, too.



The 4.8L engine is a bit gutless, so something will have to be done about upgrading that, eventually. Our new engine shop (after merging/moving HKE up to McKinney last month) Horsepower Research is already operational, known for BIG displacement LS engines, and... that has given me "some ideas". #SS454

WHAT DO WE CALL THIS TRUCK?

Its still a bit early to give this bland white truck a "name", and we usually reserve that for our bigger builds here at Vorshlag. But we're getting some pressure to name this baby early. Right now its just THE WHITE TRUCK.

There have been a lot of suggestions, and the TruckNorris name might just be re-used for this Silverado (Truck Norris reincarnated.... reinTRUCKnated?). Another name that is on the short list is Truck Yaeger, but that's a bit of a stretch. My personal favorite is TruckNado. Give us some suggestions!

More soon,

[Redwood]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

Why look at enclosed vehicles? Wouldn't you want something open for delivering stuff, or is it all small stuff? Also, I don't know what insurance you have but a lot of people (and CR) are praising Amica. If we didn't have USAA for everything, I'd be looking into them.

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

Project Update for March 30, 2017: Well I've got good news and bad news. The good news is we did a lot of little repairs on TruckNorris since my last post. For the first couple of months of 2017 it was as CLEAN AS IT HAD EVER BEEN in the four years I owned it. And the radio worked, with all 4 speakers, for the first time as well.



The bad news is - some jackass slammed into the back of me and drove the truck into other stopped traffic on the highway, totaling it. Yes, TruckNorris is dead.... LONG LIVE TRUCK NORRIS!

I bought the truck back after the insurance payout yesterday. We will use some parts of TruckNorris on our next truck build; whatever we don't use will be listed for sale in a future post.



We did get a lot of little upgrades and repairs done in the months since my last post, and some might be helpful to you readers with GMT800 trucks, so I am going ahead and finish the forum build thread update.

INTERIOR CLEAN-UP, RADIO UPGRADES, & NEW WIPERS

What's the saying, "The cobbler's children have no shoes"? Well the shop owners car is often the last one to get worked on. When you have more work lined up than you can ever complete, it's hard to make time for my crew here to work on my daily driver. I finally snapped, and last fall the interior TruckNorris was beyond dirty and dysfunctional.



This 3 year old picture was a distant memory - the interior was nasty by Fall 2016. I had been battling with a field mouse that kept sneaking inside during cold weather, eating paper, and pooping on the carpet. We live out in the country and that's what happens sometimes. I was setting traps inside the truck every night, had bait stations in the garage, even started parking the truck inside, but the bastard kept sneaking in and fouling the interior - it was time for drastic a cleanup in there!



Back in October 2016 we had some unscheduled time for Donnie, so he started by pulling out the seats, then the dead amp and speaker box (which were thrown away). Then he pulled some interior trim and out came the carpet and sound mat material. He stripped the interior down to the bare metal, and even pulled the door panels (for a speaker upgrade that came a month later).



Normally the moment I buy any used vehicle I do this - pull the seats, steam clean the carpets and floormats, and give the interior a serious scrubbing. I got too busy and never did this until October of 2016, when the smell of mouse droppings got too strong. The carpets were seriously nasty, with crumbs of food, drink stains, and trash everywhere. No wonder the mice were wanting to break into the cabin! Disgusting.



After vacuuming the carpets while still in the truck, Donnie removed the entire carpet and power washed it with soap and water. Normally a hot soapy water solution with a steam cleaner style carpet cleaner works well enough (you can rent these for about $20-25 from your local grocery store) and that's what I've always done on my own. But this carpet was nasty - gallons of coke and/or coffee had been spilled in this truck over the last 18 years and it needed some pressure to get it clean. The sound mat was washed also. The carpet and mat were left out to air dry for 24 hours.



The sticky soft drink stains were also all over the metal structures of the seats and interior plastics that had been removed, so those were all pressure washed as well. After the seats were vacuumed a damp towel was used to remove any gunk from the seat fabric. Lots of soap and water and towels later, the seats looked NEW. They were also left to dry for 24 hours. While he had the power washer hooked up I asked him to power wash the engine bay as well.



With the interior removed, steam cleaned, and no food or trash left inside, the metal floors were then washed and dried as well before the carpets went back in.



With the sound mat and carpet cleaned and dried they were replaced back inside, then the cleaned seats went in next. These nasty carpets looked brand new - it might have been 4 years after I bought the truck, but it was nice to see that. The truck smelled clean and fresh, and no more mice were noticed inside again. It took 6.42 hours to get the interior this clean, but it was worth it.



The aftermarket amp that was mounted under the passenger seat had died a year ago, and I haven't had a working radio since. This was driving me nuts! So with the carpets out Donnie removed all of the janky wiring and even re-wired the Alpine head unit to cut the amp out of the circuit (there were just pre-amp outputs at the head unit, before). Luckily the person who added the amp was lazy and left the wires in the dash, so they were re-wired to the Alpine harness and routed back to the stock speaker locations. It would be a month until we had new speakers and the time to add them...



Three of the four old speakers were trashed, but for that month I had the radio working with ONE speaker, and it was glorious! I had been listening to my phone on my daily commute and parts runs for over a year, so one speaker was heaven. Now it was time to splurge on four all new speakers. Woo! A month after the interior cleanup, on November 28th, 2016, Donnie removed the door panels and got to work mounting the new gear.



The old tweeters (aftermarket) had been mounted with nails and hot glue... not kidding, look at that picture! This was one of the jankiest speaker installs of all time. Donnie cut all that crap out, modified the mounting flanges and bolted in the speakers correctly.



A pair of 6.75" round speakers went in the doors and then some 4x6" speakers went in the rear B-pillar area, under the stock grills (see above). These aren't the exact stock sizes but damned close, and are the sizes that both Crutchfield and the interwebs recommend. With a little trimming and drilling for new holes, they fit fine.



When you are ballin on a budget like me, sometimes you have to make compromises. For the doors I ordered Rockford Fosgate R1675X2 Prime 6.75" round Coaxial Speakers, which were $37 a pair. The rear speakers were Rockford Fosgate Punch P1462 4"x6" units at $52 for the pair. So for $89 total the new speakers were not exactly super high end, but they were also not blown out speakers held in with nails and hot glue!



During the interior / radio work Donnie also fixed the aftermarket center console latch, which was always "sticky" - now it was smooth as butter, and always latched like it should. He also found all of the hardware and replaced the steering column plastics that I had taken off over a year earlier when I was chasing "security light" issues.



Sometime in the new radio wiring / speaker install work the microphone cable for the Alpine unit's Bluetooth setup was cut. So I ordered a replacement (this would be the 3rd one for this truck, but they are only $20) and it was installed on Feb 17th, 2017. The radio work in November and February totaled 3.22 hours, but damn was it worth it. For the first time in the 4 years of truck ownership I had 4 working speakers and a working Bluetooth microphone for hands free calling. I felt like king of the world! (for two whole weeks!)

After a Mobil1 synthetic oil change and new Wix oil filter in January, the next upgrade was replacing the wiper arms and wiper blades. I was feeling rich and spent $42 and got all new wiper arms and new blades.



See above - the 18 year old wiper arms were hammered, the paint all peeled off, and they looked terrible. Could we have stripped, sanded, cleaned, and painted them? Sure, but they were so inexpensive it made sense to just get new ones from RockAuto. DORMAN 42548 (left) and 42535 (right) wiper arms were only $24 for the pair. BOSCH 4822 (22") Evolution beam style wiper blades were all of $9 each.



Brad installed these parts on Feb 27th, one day before the truck was totaled. Its almost funny - I never even got to use them once.

THE WRECK



On Feb 28th, 2017, I was coming back from Microcenter with $3000 worth of new Dell computer equipment. Traffic on highway 75 was backing up so I slowed down and stopped behind a line of cars, behind a trailer (above) that was full of dirt and cement, being pulled by a 1 ton Ford truck.



I stopped short of the trailer by 15 feet, not even 1/2 braking effort, but it was a quick stop. Normal city traffic stuff, but some lanes were still buzzing by at 50-55+ mph. And so was the driver of the van behind me, who was jacking around on his phone and never hit his brakes...



I was stopped, just starting to look in the rear view and all I saw was grill... BOOM! The white 3/4 ton van plowed into the back of TruckNorris and shoved me into the trailer ahead, pushing the stopped truck & trailer and my truck forward another 25-30 feet. The van was doing 50+ mph, and it was a HARD hit; first from behind, then from front. Popped the airbags.



The hit was so hard it buckled the rear frame rails and the entire bed/fenders in the rear, and of course knocked the rear bumper all askew. The subsequent front hit looks pretty bad, but I was stopped and then shoved hard into the trailer ahead. The rear hit was enough to total the truck, but the front hit did a LOT more damage. In Texas this type of accident is considered fully the fault of the car at the back of the train, and his insurance just paid me the property claim for my totaled truck.



As bad as it looks, TruckNorris was still able to restart and drive 1/2 a mile away from traffic and into a parking lot, to await the police. Steering was a little off, but otherwise it drove fine! The transmission started leaking fluid, since the radiator was shredded in the hit, so it was slipping a little when the flatbed arrived.


Pour one out for your homie #TruckNorris

Yesterday I got the check for the difference of the value of my truck minus the buy back. It was a pretty piss poor payout, and I since then have learned to add a "aftermarket upgrade rider" to my own insurance policy whenever we have done significant upgrades or modifications to our vehicles. That way it is insured for X dollars, no matter what the blue book value shows. So yea, they gave me what they thought a 18 year old truck with 280K miles was worth - never mind that I couldn't buy a regular cab / short bed / 5.3L V8 GMT800 for double what they paid me. Never mind the 8K in parts upgrades - we gave them receipts, didn't matter.



We will use this truck for parts on the next build, then sell off the rest of the interior, drivetrain bits and wheels - so I will post here again when that happens. As bummed out as I've been over the last month about losing my truck, I'm starting to get excited about the next build. We never got to do the big engine upgrade, but the next one will get BIG LS power.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Yes, I was hurt in the accident, but that is still a pending case so I can't talk about it here. What I can talk about is what comes next for my Daily Driver / Fast Delivery truck.



After lots of discussions, tons of research, and hundreds of CraigsList searches I have decided on... a GMT420. That refers to a Tahoe or Yukon made from 1995-1999, and specifically I'm looking for the rare 2 door version that is RWD (instead of the 4WD or 4 door versions). I think they look great, and their 111.5" wheelbase is shorter than even TruckNorris' short 119", which makes it smaller, easier to maneuver, and lighter than any of the 4 door SUV versions.



I'll talk more about that build in a NEW project build thread, which I will start shortly after I find the right candidate to start with. The 454 SS GMT400 truck above has some elements we might be adding to the Tahoe, so stay tuned for that...

Until next time,

[FuelerFire]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

Here's how she sits at the moment...



Don't make fun of my grandpa topper. I was remodeling our house for a year before we could move in and needed to keep tools with me all the time. As for the wheels, I just don't have the time to polish billet constantly and 305/45r22s are stupid heavy. This thing couldn't spin the tires with the old wheels. I do miss the handling though so things are about to change.

Plans are to ditch the topper, drop it back down, freshen up the suspension, rebuild the blower and at least start gathering parts for a 5 or 6 speed swap. So that leaves a few questions:
What part numbers did you use for the Bilstein 5100s and what needed modifying?
What is the story on the wheels? I want something light and sportscar-ish. I used to work for Brumos Racing and even talked to the owner of FABCAR once about making a set of hubs to be able to run center-lock Fikses like we had on our Daytona Prototype. Not gonna lie, I still want that, but stupid adult responsibility stuff.
Have you got any products in mind for the future? I'd love to see a watts link or other suspension goodies. Maybe work out the kinks to swap the new 6.2 in these. Or even just a good complete manual trans swap kit. Lots of guys have done the t56 swap, but they are getting expensive and the double overdrive makes a rear gear change necessary. The Tremec TKO has some good ratio options and is lighter to boot.

[FuelerFire]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

Something about your truck looks familiar...


Mine even came from Texas. It's a 2002 that I picked up on Ebay and drove from Jacksonville, FL to Dallas to pick up in 2004. Was supposedly a show truck for Boze wheels (hence the bling) that the owner lost in a divorce. The receipts for work and parts was more than what I paid for it. He was even nice enough to install a Vortech supercharger and prepay the XM radio. Anyway it's been a fun and reliable truck that I have no intention of getting rid of and it's time to show her some love so I have enjoyed reading about your progress.

Time is cruel to us all and this one is no exception....

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

continued from above

REPAIR WORK JULY 2016

After a year... OK two years of deferred maintenance, this happened last week:



Massive transmission fluid leak that, after 3 days, just wasn't seeming to fix itself. Where are those magic leprechauns when you need them??? Luckily I had just hired a new mechanic that knows GM vehicles well, and he diagnosed the issue minutes after he got the truck up on a lift.



Apparently a transmission hard line had worn through where it was rubbing on the oil pan for the last 18 years. It leaked enough to cover the underside of the truck in trans fluid... yay. Guess its not gonna rust anytime soon, so that is a bonus.



After ordering a new pre-bent trans cooler hard line from one of our suppliers ($17.10) and some new retaining clips for both ends ($10), the busted line was replaced in mere minutes. It needed 4 quarts of trans fluid, so that was added. While its up in the air I gave Donnie a pile of parts I had been accumulating and asked him to install "whatever you can by noon". After that I needed him back on a customer job.



The fuel level gauge has been psychotic for over a year, going from dead empty (with accompanying "LOW FUEL" light flashing, switching between that and the constant "SECURITY" light) to sometimes showing the actual fuel level reading. Lately it hasn't worked properly even 10% of the time, so I just use the trip odometer to gauge my fuel range. I had purchased the Dorman 2630370 replacement fuel pump / level sensor almost a year ago, but one of my former technicians said he needed to pull the bed to access the tank to fix this. I didn't want to tie up the shop for a whole damned day just to fix the fuel level gauge so I "pushed" this repair on my truck for almost a year.

Donnie knew the proper procedure, however, which was much easier than that. First he removed the rear of the driveshaft from the axle, lowering that out of the way. Then put our telescoping transmission transmission jack under the fuel tank. Disconnected the filler neck and dropped the tank down 2 feet, full of fuel and still connected. Then he could access the top and pull out the older pump assembly. He had this replaced in 20 minutes, hot damn! I told him to keep going.



One major suspension issue that has been broken since I bought this truck 3.5 years ago were the rear lowering shackles. These were installed by a previous owner to lower the rear ride height about 2 inches, so they are about 2" longer than the stock bits. These had polyurethane bushings instead of rubber, and they had worn out ages ago - before I bought this truck. Every time you came to a stop the shackles would articulate (as normal) but would get STUCK. The back of the truck would stay up a couple of inches. Then when you drove away from a stop the rear end would BANG back down, after the shackles unstuck. It was driving me crazy, like so many things on this old truck.



It was hard to tell with these installed, but the shackles were actually sticking sideways a bit, twisting the rear leaf springs when they rotated. The rear shackles need to articulate slightly during suspension travel, but when they get stuck (constantly) it degraded the ride quality - badly. Part of the problem with buying a modified vehicle with a lot of miles on it is you don't know exactly what they have done, and which parts of what quality they used.



I didn't really want to chase down and re-purchase the janky aftermarket lowering shackles they had used before, so I took a chance and purchased OEM length shackles last year (2 qty Dorman 722029, $19.32 each). The trailer hitch had to come off to get the bolts out (which were installed backwards), but then the new Dorman parts were installed with the new hardware the correct way. Bushings were fresh, lengths were OEM correct for this truck. Another seemingly hard fix that turned out to be easy. I'm not an experienced truck mechanic, but it sure helps to have a guy on staff that knows these trucks.



He checked all of the rest of the front suspension ball joints, and surprisingly they were all in good shape - no excessive movement when pushed with a pry bar. All 4 wheels and tires were re-balanced (finding a thrown weight - which are all now secured with aluminum tape) and rotating the tires front to back. That constant shimmy that was there at 60 mph before is now gone. Oh, and he checked the diff fluid and it was 1.5 quarts low, which he refilled - I think it only holds 3 quarts. One more think to plan for later.



Donnie was skilled in A/C repairs and he hooked up to, diagnosed, and fixed the busted A/C on the truck in less than 15 minutes. It hasn't worked worth a damn for over 6 months, but with a can of R134a it is back to freezing cold again. Right in time for 100°F weather, too. He topped off the engine oil and had all of that finished before lunch, so my truck didn't tie up the shop all day.

WHAT'S NEXT?

That was a lot of fixes to Truck Norris in a half day, and it was well worth it. The ride quality is vastly improved (new shackles) and the rear end isn't getting "hung up" every time I come to a stop. The Air Con works again! The trans leak is fixed, diff fluid and engine oil topped off, the tires were re-balanced, and the fuel gauge now works. There is more to fix, of course.

The factory 5.3L V8 feels a bit more sluggish lately, maybe losing some compression, and its seeing more detonation as the ambient temps rise. It is definitely burning (and leaking) some oil, and with 275K miles it might finally be time to replace it. I have a fresh, fully race built LSX V8 left over from a previous project, which has an iron block. I can't put an iron block LS engine in any race car (its 80 pounds on the nose), so its been sitting there waiting to replace the worn out 5.3L in Truck Norris for a bit.



But the old 5.3L just keeps going and going, like the damned Energizer bunny! It leaks oil, knocks, and feels slower, but nothing else serious enough seems to go wrong with it. If we ever get the time to sneak this truck into the shop for a couple of days, I'll have the crew install that motor into this truck. The 275K mile 4L60E transmission is very much on its last legs, so it really needs to be replaced with a freshened and beefed up unit if we add a 400 whp engine to the truck, too. Just takes time and money.



This truck also needs a rear gear ratio change (its too tall, making the engine lug at highway speed - down shifting too much to maintain 70-80 mph) and a limited slip differential. That open diff has been a nuisance ever since I bought this truck. We have been using Donnie to do rear gear + differential setups for several years, and now that he is here as an employee we will use his talents to update this rear axle on Truck Norris, soon.



Radio has got to be fixed soon, and now the rear ride height is 2" taller again, with the OEM length rear shackles. That is making my eye twitch....



My buddy Jason's similar 2000 GMC 1500 has had the front end updated to a 2003 grill installed along with the 2003 bumper bits. I bought all of these parts ages ago but haven't them installed yet. I'll try to sneak the new 2003 black bumper and lower plastics onto my truck soon, along with a few other things I purchased that haven't been installed - like new door hinge pin repair kits, bed rail covers, and a later model tail gate cap. The paint is getting pretty rough on this truck, but I can't think about that right now. Too many other fires to put out on too many other projects. Already spent too much time writing this...

Cheers,

[Fair!]

Re: Vorshlag Shop Truck - 5.3L SWB GMT800 (Truck Norris!)

Project Update for July 24, 2016: It has been over a year since my last update, and Truck Norris has racked up tens of thousands of mostly trouble-free miles. We have done very little maintenance on this truck in that period, which is is frankly... a little embarrassing. You know how it goes.. we've been busy at the shop, and I haven't had the manpower, time or money to do much to my old shop truck. Recently I hired a new technician / fabricator (Donnie), and he had a few hours of time available while waiting on parts for billable customer work... and I had a pile of parts for Truck Norris that need to be installed. He only spent a half day but knocked out a TON of much needed repairs in July. There were also a couple of things done since my last post last year - an oil change, window switch, and one tie rod - but nothing else. Most of this below happened in one day, and man it made me happy to get this truck back in tip top shape!



Over the past year since my last post Truck Norris has carried me to work 7 days a week, hauled transmissions, transferred up pallets of machined and laser cut parts, and taken wheels and tires all over town. Almost 30K miles worth of hard work, never driven easy, because I'm always in a damn hurry, LOL! In mixed driving it has gotten between 15-17 mpg, which considering how much city driving I do, is pretty good. I even took this truck on a few trips out of town (100-200 miles away), which was risky considering how much maintenance had been deferred. But now we fixed a lot of that, so it is now longer a worry - I'd hop in this truck now and drive it to Alaska, no sweat.



As you will read below, I had "pushed" a lot of issues out of mind on this truck. This is not at all how we treat customer cars, or even our own shop race cars. This truck is like the honey badger - it just doesn't care if we change the oil, or ignore other maintenance issues. Mostly these things little things have just been slowly driving me insane. Owning a motorsports business is not a great way to make "mountains of gold", so this truck has been the last thing that gets worked on. Poor old Truck Norris has been ignored for the entirety of the last year - hell, its been 14 months since the last oil change! Shameful.

I also haven't had a lot of time to properly document many of our continuing build threads since January, after I took over our purchasing & service invoicing position 6 months ago. I still work a lot of hours but cannot seem to find the time to update our forum build threads properly - trying to rectify that today! I've posted several "This Week At Vorshlag" videos which cover some of the highlights of a few projects (see our YouTube channel) but Truck Norris here has been ignored completely on those. So why not, let's do a quick and dirty update on the Vorshlag Shop Truck right now.

ABS & SECURITY SYSTEM ISSUES + NEW TIE ROD

The ABS system started bugging out about 2 years ago, mostly during rainy days. Seemed like something was getting wet and causing this pair of warning lights (below) to pop up. When that happened the ABS stopped working completely - not that it ever works all that well. I'm convinced GM doesn't know how to make an ABS system worth a damn (ask me how easily I can ICE MODE the brakes on a modern Corvette or Camaro).



All of the "internet wisdom" on the truck forums said to replace the ABS Control Module, so we ordered the Dorman remanufactured unit above. Nearly $300 but at least it is somewhat easy to replace.



The ABS hydraulic unit is mounted under the cab, next to the fuel filter. The ABS control module is the bit bolted on top, in the image above. My guys replaced this late in 2015, but we had a bit of a dry spell, and the warning lights never came on again. Sure enough, a few months later when it rained, the ABS failure lights were back. Now they are on about 1/3rd of the time, even on dry days. So yea, we're still chasing that one. So this issue has been "pushed" for now. I always brake early for everything in the wet, and most vehicles built for the past 100 years didn't have ABS systems, either. Meh.



Another PITA little nagging issue that cropped up in 2015 was the "SECURITY" light shown above. This is a failure in the Vehicle Anti Theft System that GM uses on all of their cars. The system (and its many failings) is detailed online, but it was bugging and the light kept coming flashing... flashing... Sometimes this was followed by a failure to start - you would turn the key in the ignition and nothing would happen. Some communication with the ECM and the key or some garbage? It left me stranded a couple of times, but if you sat and waited 10-15 minutes it would crank back up. Usually only did this when its 100 degrees outside, so you can sweat while you wait. Yay! Sometimes when I tried a second key it would start. Why? Who knows.



One internet theory was that some wiring in the column gets chafed. I took the column cover off (pin head or "Security" Torx bits needed) and checked everything - no worn wires, no shorts. I finally got fed up with it and asked Sean from True Street Motorsports to hook up to the ECM and just turn the damned VATS system off in the programming. The light still comes on at random times, but it hasn't "not started" since he did that bit of programming. Thanks Sean!



Another thing that was fixed back in January of 2016 was a front tie rod. This had a worn out ball joint end for months, and the wobble on the left front wheel had gotten so bad I couldn't stand it. Checked it out, ordered the replacement part, and Olof swapped that in. The left front tire had taken a beating during that time and had worn the inside into cords, so it was replaced - just the one tire.

Why just the one? Well the other 3 tires were still in OK shape and I didn't want to replace the rest until I decided if I wanted to keep this tire and wheel size. The ride quality has been worsening and wasn't sure if the 20" wheels were the right option long term (I waffled between 18" and 20" wheel choices when I bought this set of Forgestars). So just one tire, sort of a "push" until the rest of the tires got worse or I managed to get a new set of something better than "Generals". I'd like to have a new set of Michelin LTX tires (the best highway truck tires made) which are about $217/each, nearly double what these cheap-o General GRABBER UHP tires cost ($125/each). But you "get what you pay for" when it comes to truck tires. Always. Even when it comes to car tires, it is hard to beat the performance / ride / quality of Michelin. They just seem to be at the top of their game right now...

STEREO AMP & INTERIOR ISSUES

The years haven't being so kind to old Truck Norris here. Several interior bits have broken or fallen off in the last year... hey, its an 18 year old work truck, after all.



I need to replace those bits above + the steering wheel cover, when I have the time and budget. I've had bigger issues of late so those have been a "push" for now. Just typical "old car stuff" on a truck nearing 300K miles.



The worst part of the interior in this truck since I have owned it has been the steering wheel. The top of the leather cover has baked in the sun for nearly two decades, which dries out the material and causes cracks. A previous owner must have picked at this cover unconsciously and has shredded the top bits. Now watch this video on steering wheel wrap styles.



As I researched ways to make Truck Norris' (and another car I'm working on) steering wheel nice, I found that there are some really nice, custom leather steering wheel cover "kits" you can buy to install and stitch yourself. These come in two varieties: perimeter wraps, and OEM fit wraps. The perimeter wrap kits, like this brand, are "semi-universal", and fit around the perimeter of the wheel but do not go into the spokes. These can be customized ($50-150 for leather) and are relatively cheap. They can be installed by a DIY guy in a couple of hours, but it doesn't look even remotely factory, and depends heavily on your own skill.

The OEM fit wrap kits made much more closely to the OEM shapes, and can also be customized, for around $150-250 for the kits alone. These can take 5-10 man hours to install properly, require a LOT more skill, and frankly are not appropriate for a DIY install. But they do look very nice. Again, watch the video above to see what the differences is and how they are done. "Ain't nobody got time fo that!" There are companies that offer this as a service - you remove your steering wheel, ship it to the shop, and have these OEM kits installed. This can cost from $250-1000. The cheaper priced services have the installation work done mostly done in Eastern Europe, for what it's worth. You could be without a steering wheel for weeks or months, in that case. As with anything, you get what you pay for.



The third route to rewrap a crusty or torn steering wheel is a slip-on cover, and this seems more appropriate for Truck Norris. These can range from REALLY crappy looking to not-quite-as-crappy. I just bought the $21 leather steering wheel cover above for Jack Daniels, our BMW 325Ci. Installing this took some effort but stretched over the OEM steering wheel with two sets of hands in about 2 minutes (Pro Tip - halfway install these and let it sit in the sun for an hour, warming it up and making it more pliable). It doesn't look half as bad as the old, ripped up steering wheel leather on that BMW. I'll probably measure this truck's wheel and order one like this soon. Make sure you get the right outer diameter to fit your wheel.



The power window on one side was very slow then eventually stopped working late last year but this new window switch assembly fix that right up. The felts are worn out on that passenger window, too, and it has ripped up the window tint on that side. One more thing that needs to be restored, one more "push".



The damned radio stopped working in 2015, which is slowly driving me insane. One day the speakers made this loud POP! noise and then... nothing. The lights on the Alpine head unit come on, but the amp is dead and at least two of the speakers are blown.



I'm no audiophile, but I have racked up a lot of miles in this truck in the last year, spending most of that time with no working radio. Instead I use my phone on a dash mount to listen to streaming music + my navigation app, but the volume and sound quality is as bad as you might expect. And with no hands free Bluetooth phone connection any longer, its a hassle / danger to make or answer calls.

I haven't installed a car stereo since high school, and that one was a cassette deck... so its been a few decades, and I'm a bit rusty. The proper radio fix is "simple": give a bunch of money to a stereo shop (I got quotes from $1000+) to replace the amp and speakers. Option 2 is to rip out this old aftermarket amplifier, aftermarket speaker box, and blown factory speakers, replace the factory speakers with new units, and re-wire the entire radio and speaker wiring in the truck (where the internal amp in the head unit drives the speakers). Due to costs or time, neither of these options has been high on my list, so another "push" until I get the motivation. But soon....

OIL CHANGES? WHO NEEDS EM!

I used to be good about maintaining my own cars and trucks, but as my free time has dwindled down to zero and the shop stays busy on customer work, my vehicles seem to be the last ones worked on. What do they say, "a Cobblers children have no shoes"? That's so true...



I make sure and get a picture of any work on this truck, and the last oil change was May of 2015. Holy crap, that's terrible... at least it is synthetic. And "luckily" about a quart leaks/burns off every month, so its been sort of changing itself, you could say. We checked it last week and it was 2 freagin quarts low - good grief! Fixing the leaks on a 275K engine is kind of pointless, though, and we have another built LSX engine I would like to install in this truck soon. So another "push"...

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